Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-21
DAILY HERALD.
Invonsisms that will Entirely
Reyalutiemize RailrOadinG.

Devoluthomize WailrOadtng.
II . ride in an electrical street car
xtops mans watch the watchmakers
of the future will be busy men and
the man who travels a great deal will
have to 90 watchless or provide him
self with an electrical time-piece.
That is, providing the inventions Of
Mr.. w. +. Stocker, who has an office
1t 1l9 West Sixth street, are sue
ress. A train carrying all of Mr..
Seekers patents would be moving
stream Of electricity, circuit on
wheels, and the inventor is confident
that il will be but few years until
all the railroads in the country will
have adopted his patents. He has
had no trouble in organizing COM
Yany Of Kansas City capitalists, who
are Of his opinion and who have Or
ganizcd and taken 81 ,000, 900 worth of
stock in the patents.
The railway train OF the future will
be propelled by electricity, OF course,
nod the inventor, to hasten the change
irom the old to the new method, has
arranged his electrical contrivance so
that it can be applied to the locomo-
tive Of to-day. The tender will be
replaced by an electrical storage bat
terry car, about ohe-half as large as an
exp ess car. The electricity gener-
atssd by the battery will supply an
electric motor in the engine. The mo-
for operates compressed-air pumps
which force the air into the boiler and
run the engine with cold air instead of
steam. This does away with fuel and
wxter, smoke and cinders.
Having furnished the power the in
vcntor has turned his attention to
the train itself. A very neat little
contrivance, called by the inventor an
s.lectric conductor and air-brake coup
Ter combined, provides connection for
the electric wires which are to run
through the train, by connecting the
tube which contains them with the
xir-brake tube. The coupler makes
the connection for both as simply as
though there were but one tube.
Mr.. Stocker is now at work on an
invention that he expects will entirely
supplant the Westinghouse air-brake.
This electro-automatic air-brake is con-
structed upon an entirely different
plan than hat of the Westinghouse.
BY means of the pressing of an cleo
faic button in the cab of the engine,
it will stop the train at.once. The bell
cord will be done away by another in
venfion. and the grasping of wooden
handle or the touch of an electric but
ton will blow whistle in every car in
the train and also in the engine.
There will be no further trouble
with the brakeman who calls out the
names of the stations in an unintelligi-
ible gibberish. In the end of each car
will be a sign like this:
THE NEXT STATION.
At the side of the track at each sta
zion will be post, at the foot of which
is planted an electric battery. An
arm from this post will reach out SO as
to touch each car as it passes, and
when it touches the car an electric cir
ruit will be closed, and the card bear
ing the name of the previous station
viii drop, giving place to one bearing
the name Of the next station.
Another electrical devise that the
train of the future will carry, will be a
contrivance to prevent the wheels
from sliding. This will cause great
slving ON a railroad, as sliding wears
out the wheels and is source of con-
slant expense.
The inventor does not intend that
there shall be any collisions of his
moving battery trains, and one of his |
inventions is an automatic tagging |
system. BY means Of this each train |
will flag itself around curves or at any |
dangerous point. When train ar
riyes at a certain distance from the |
curve an electric current is closed
which raises red flag or lantern on
the other side OF the curve.
Still another of Mr.. Stocker's ideas |
is an automatic ventilator for railway |
cars. BY system of electric lights |
ON which he has applied for patent,
the storage battery in the engine will |
furnish the light for the ears, and the |
miserable little coal lamps will be no |
more. The engine will also gleam |
forth into the darkness with an elec- |
trio headlight, and the inventor has a |
system of electric lighting for switches.
These are but few OF the electric |
on which Mr.. Stocker is |
Mt work, and by which he expects to
railroading. The in
ventor is not a crank, but an educated,
progressive electrician, who says that |
there is nothing impractical in any of
his contrivances. Several of them |
have already been tried with success,
and he is confident of them all. The
lunpany which is backing him is
Of some of the shrewdest |
SPECTATORS and inventors in Kansas
City, and stand ready to advance the
required money to perfect the patents |
uad introduce them.-[K Kansas City |
Star.